Jerusalem — In a recent speech on the war in Afghanistan, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft generated headlines by casting the conflict in starkly religious terms.
“Civilized people — Muslims, Christians and Jews — all understand that the source of freedom and human dignity is the Creator,” Ashcroft said. “Civilized people of all religious faiths are called to the defense of His creation. We are a nation called to defend freedom — a freedom that is not the grant of any government or document, but is our endowment from God.”
Ashcroft is no stranger to controversy, having sparked criticism for leading Bible studies in his office at the Department of Justice and appearing at several Christian events since taking office.
Despite his insistence in the speech that, “This is not a conflict based in religion. It is a conflict between good and evil,” Ashcroft’s words exemplify the dangerous tendency to portray a battle against terrorism as a religious conflict.
Deciding which religions are civilized and which ones are not is not the role of the U.S. Attorney General. Declaring which side God favors not only simplifies religious belief, but it can spark religious divisions and harden the resolve of the terrorists who believe that God is on their side. Ashcroft’s statement befits a minister, not an attorney general.
I am not suggesting that religion plays no role in the present conflict. The chilling murder of Wall Street Journal Reporter Daniel Pearl and the videotaped evidence that he was made to say “Yes I am a Jew and my father is a Jew” before he was killed testify to the religious hatred motivating our adversaries.
That the terrorists who sparked the present conflict were motivated by religious purposes reinforces, however, the need for caution on the part of public leaders in using religion to sanction political and military decisions.
When government officials claim to know God’s will, they turn religion into a generic tool devoid of moral complexity and ethical challenge.
Proclaiming that a transcendent God favors a particular nation also implies that some groups are not favored. Such statements by public leaders trigger further religious division and extremism.
Rather than teach us whose religions are right and wrong, the present conflict teaches us a far more important lesson, and that is the need for pluralism. Jonathan Sacks, the Orthodox Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, eloquently states this imperative.
“If religion,” writes Sacks, “is to rise to the challenge of a global age it must oppose fundamentalism in the name of faith itself. God creates diversity and calls on us to honor it. He has placed His image in those who are not in our image. He speaks to mankind in many languages, not one.”
The present conflict was instigated by those who claim to know God’s will. Those who do not share their faith are considered infidels.
Our challenge is not to fall into their trap. Our challenge is to fight their attempt to impose a single truth on a plural world.
Evan Moffic, a graduate of Nicolet High School and Stanford University, is in his first year of rabbinical school at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, which serves the Reform Jewish movement.
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